Recent Luther Seminary graduates Phil Silva and Grace Zauche join an illustrious group of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry graduates who received the CYF Prize for their scholarly work. Phil was recognized for his paper “Children and Youth in the New Information Ecosystem” and Grace for her paper “Young Adults and ELCA Summer Camp: A Blueprint for Loving Your Neighbor.”
The CYF prize is given annually to one or more students who demonstrate excellence in reflecting theologically, culturally, and pragmatically on the practice of children, youth, young adult, adult, or family ministries.
Phil Silva
What led you to pursuing theological education?
I grew up in San Leandro, California, which is next to Oakland. I did all my prior education in California with a B.S. and a Ph.D. in chemistry and have worked as a scientist since then, both as a university faculty member in Utah and, now in Kentucky, at a federal laboratory. I’ve volunteered with my church for over 10 years teaching the preteen classes and almost applied for my church youth minister position when it opened up but didn’t think I was qualified enough at the time. Our then senior pastor said I should consider seminary as it would help with discernment for the future. He suggested his seminary, Fuller, but I told him I couldn’t afford that as I have a kid in college myself. Sometime later I learned about the Jubilee scholarship at Luther—and that they accepted non-Lutherans—so here I am.
What are you hoping to do with your Luther Seminary degree?
I really am not sure yet, but if I have learned anything from the field education portfolio class with Mary Hess, it is that discernment is a journey not an epiphany. When I started the seminary journey, one of the elders at my church asked if I was thinking about career transition or something bi-vocational—I said then that I did not know, and I still don’t. It has been a year of uncertainty in science in the federal government, with expectations of layoffs that I thought might dictate the path, but that hasn’t happened yet. I have a strong interest in science-faith issues, but there are so many newer organizations in that space that I’m not sure where I would fit. I’ve helped my church craft content for some preteen retreats over the last several years, and my current senior pastor shared that I have a gift for curriculum and teaching—so this is something I’m paying attention to.
Tell us about the paper you submitted for the CYF prize. Why did you want to dig into this topic?
In teaching preteens, I have noticed increasingly weird questions that aren’t the usual ones previous generations of kids would’ve had at this age. A lot of them seem to come from the effects of the internet, social media, and podcasts. Influencers are injecting things into everyday conversations, some of which affect theology and faith as well as our understanding of science. I wrote the intro to this paper introducing one of these questions—an inquiry from a 10-year-old about Atlantis and Noah’s flood. This is not your typical “science vs. faith” question of the past because neither science nor faith take the story of Atlantis particularly seriously. This is an example of something being injected into the conversation from somewhere else entirely.
How would you contextualize this paper with your overall scholarly work here at Luther?
If I think about the experience here at Luther, obviously I learned a lot of theology and church history along the way. But in the CYF degree program, all the classes I have taken from Andy Root and one from Tripp Fuller about pop culture were very helpful for writing the thesis. I have utilized the conversations about philosophy, social psychology, and child development to think about what our theological response should be to this phenomenon.
Grace Zauche
What led you to pursuing theological education?
I grew up in Chaska, Minnesota, and Lodi, Wisconsin. My family moved to Wisconsin when I was eight and has been in Lodi since. My undergraduate degree is in elementary education from Gustavus Adolphus College. Until I attended an ELCA church camp, I wasn’t interested in a career in ministry. After working at camp—and after an important conversation with a friend who pointed out to me that I did sound interested in ministry—I realized maybe I was being called to serve the church in some way. I was teaching at an elementary school at the time. After I had my daughter, the opportunity to attend Luther Seminary arose and I took the chance.
What are you hoping to do with your Luther Seminary degree?
I currently work at a church with an underdeveloped ministry with children, so I’m excited to implement the tools and strategies I’ve learned to build up a children’s ministry there.
Tell us about the paper you submitted for the CYF prize.
I decided to write about summer camp, specifically my experiences at an ELCA summer camp. I was deeply impacted by my experience working at Sugar Creek Bible Camp. My friends shared similar experiences with me. I wanted to understand more deeply why that would be—how working at camp fosters a sense of love for one’s neighbor. We all spoke about love of neighbor being one of the biggest takeaways from working at camp—I wanted to learn more about why that was.